I was drawn into the first quarter of this book right away. Really thought it was intriguing and I think about 50% of the way through it started to flag and at 75% I couldn't figure out why it hadn't ended yet. Which is weird because it wasn't that long of a book, but it felt horrendously long by the end.

The first thing that really bugged me was that every character was in love with Rune for some reason--felt very Gary Stu. I had no idea who the hell the love interest was going to be because the companion thing went way beyond just brotherly love and flew into the land of jealousy--then just randomly took a 180 and Brand was like 'nevermind, I'm not interested'. What? Made no sense whatsover.

Rune... wasn't all that interesting. He reminds me a lot of Harry Potter, to be honest. He has the horrible backstory and the chosen one aspects and everyone loves him for some reason and he's stale like cardboard. Everyone around him is more interesting than he is.

In the end, I didn't like this book that much. Kind of sad that it flopped since it started out really strong. 

 I usually look up info on authors beforehand and I saw that JS Dewes was a gamer, then I saw she liked Mass Effect and now that I'm paying closer attention, I am seeing the ME parallels I didn't notice at first. It might've been unintentional (as creative works tend to pull from one another), but I thought that was pretty funny, especially after that ending.

I liked this a lot! How can you start a book with the line "Spread your legs and bend over" and not be totally charmed? It's impossible, I'm telling you! I really enjoyed these characters and their misfit nature and how they come together through the ridiculous nonsense that's going on out at the edge of the universe. I'd say that it was possibly a bit too convenient at times for how much Cav could manage to do without a lot of real world application for his book smarts, but that still didn't bother me too much because he's not taken too seriously.

I really enjoyed the tech that was included, like the weird imprint tattoos that basically made the 'super soldiers' of the future without the need of giant mechs and stuff. There's alien races in this, but I'm not totally sure I get much about them. It might be my flawed listening skills and I need to read over a description better. Though I guess if I just think of them in like ME terms, it's maybe Protheans, Salarians, Krogans, and Humans at the moment? As far as I could really grasp them in their roles (not necessarily how they look, just as the functions they kind of take on in society as a whole).

I'll be interested to see where things go next since that was a pretty big thing that happened in this one--though probably a temporary fix, if anything. 

 I thought this world was really interesting and WOW how strange to read it now after COVID has hit. So many creepy parallels, but obviously the scifi is far out of our reach.

One thing that kind of grinded at me was the consistent 'he said/she said/I said' after every dialogue rather than just using action words or just description. I can only hope that the second book or Scalzi's other works aren't like this too, because I do enjoy the characters and the world building. 

 I think Written in the Stars started off really strong with a good balance between character development and world development. I didn't read the second book, but this one was a bit of a flop for me. There was more focus on the sex, I think, and less focus on the characters themselves. Maybe I like a better slow burn or a more high stakes will-they/won't-they, because their angst and then the 'big fight' was pretty blasé all-told.

Plus this was miscommunication (and based over like a 10-year gap??) and it's a bit much. I don't like the trope, it's useless and brings nothing to the table which it didn't do here. It was boring and gave no real stakes for the story.

There wasn't much outside their relationship happening. Hardly anything existed of Margot's job (to the point that it was non-existent) and even though Olivia was planning a wedding, most of her work wasn't included, it was just how her time was revolving around Margot and her friends. 

 I think this was a little too dreamy for me. I liked a lot of the characters, but the scifi of it was overrun by the more dreamy aspects and diminished my enjoyment. 

 I think this ended well! I really loved the atmosphere in the last book here; a literal road trip through Hell for everyone involved. I love that Adam doesn't compromise his morals and never wants to be a killer, no matter how easy that path can be for him.

And look, I'm a sucker for a magical connection and for talking inside each other's heads and feeling each other's feelings, but I really do love how things ended up for them. I think it worked out right; even if they do believe in their feelings and still feel them without the magic there, it's important to build and keep that bond without it there, too. Just like Adam disagreeing to move in was the right choice, regardless of how easy and perfect it felt like it would be.

I'd say overall I'm pleased with the series and how things went throughout. I loved the humor and the love, the character development and their arcs. David has an awesome sense of place and character and a cool set of ideas. I'm watching you, David, and I hope for some more great queer stories! 

 I think the problem with this was that it was kind of unnecessary. We already knew who the couple at the end would be, so why was there an entire book that languished with other guys and miscommunication tropes just to come to the conclusion that we knew it would?

If it had come to this in some other, more original manner, then sure, maybe that would've made it a good sequel, but instead it was tons of angst and truthfully bullshit moves to some of the side characters to make these two come back to one another. Mikey was a pretty decent dude who got a really raw deal--multiple times.

Either they should've targeted for a much later time in their lives and not done all this continued high school bullshit, or just left the book alone as it was. 

 I think I like the scheming the most in these books and that they try to misdirect you, but they also feel pretty short for how epic they try to be overall. I like most of the characters and suspending disbelief for the most part, they're pretty smart and capable. But it does seem a little unreasonable that a group of teenage twenty-somethings somehow continuously outsmart people who have been in war for years upon years and other blood thirsty nobility. It's a fun thought, sure, but ultimately kind of ridiculous.

But I still liked the series a lot, even if all the characters got whiny and petulant sometimes. They are young so that's to be expected, honestly. Especially when you're supposed to be a war-time leader with high expectations put on you. I think the shortness of the books kind of made the character development away from that seem a bit abrupt at times, but it was what it was. I liked the ending. 

 I stayed up to finish this book and it was a literal dumpster fire but I still liked it... I guess? It doesn't get any less absurd, of course, and never really makes a lot of sense. People are just being murdered left and right for reasons that don't fully get explained, but crime lords gonna crime lord, eh?

The whole attempt to entangle the exy team with a crime syndicate still makes no sense nor does the fact that there was supposedly a coach but for some reason

Riko was running some sort of torture dungeon through the team and no one gave a shit.

I still don't really get the romance in the book at all either. Angsty romance is fine and all, but it never seemed like the chemistry was there.

One minute it's like Andrew would kill for Neil and the next he has no emotions whatsoever. I feel like it would've made more sense for Andrew to be more receptive to a romantic relationship over a physical one, at least to start with. But even by the end, it didn't seem like there was a lot of feeling there at all. I dunno. I just don't really buy it. I'd have to know more of Andrew's mindset to really understand how that's supposed to work.

It's 5am, this review probably makes no sense. This reminds me of Twilight, I think, in that it's a huge mess but I still kinda like it anyway. 

 I saw the movies for this long before I ever read the book, so I already had a pretty vague idea of what was going to happen. I've always liked this story, probably because my name is Sarah and it means Princess in Hebrew and as a kid I was easily pleased by things like this. I like the overactive imagination, living in a sort of fantasy world almost.

Sara does get a bit old with everyone fawning over her like she's the be-all, end-all because apparently being a decent human being is just that damn unexpected back then? Heaven forbid anyone just be nice. And the fact that she says, "oh no, I'm ugly and nothing special, shut up you guys" is pretty friggin annoying too. She was hero-worshiped for being alive and breathing half the time.

It seemed like every kid aside from Sara was described as fat (except maybe Becky, though she was being starved and worked to death, so it was hard for her to have any fat on her poor little skeleton anyway), which is also very obnoxious like 'only the beautiful little Sara can be perfect and skinny and everyone else is fat. Also every other child is extremely stupid even though they come from fairly decent families (not as rich as Sara, but still enough that they were having French lessons, so obviously not poor) who would have educated their kids yet they all turned out to be dullards somehow.

Yeah, I know, it was written in 1905, but there is no reason to excuse and ignore these things in our 'classic' literature just because they were widely read. Child labor was also widely done and as we know now, it wasn't a good fucking thing, so let's move on and start giving a more critical eye to this shit and stop saying these books are so amazing just because they are old.

The story isn't bad and I don't hate it, but I still like the movie adaptations better.